Cappuccino U describes informal learning and work that occurs in the Third Place. Neither home nor office, the Third Place is generally named Starbucks
Cappuccino U is a metaphor for a new approach to learning based on community,networking, self-study, distance education, and technology. While it is usually focusedon The Third Place, the coffee shop where people gather to work and chat, we cantranspose it to libraries, hotels, and other locations (including our homes) where wemight work and meet with other people, or may be alone in a crowd – or just alone.
The Third Place is also a neutral place: the people who meet and work togethercome as equals. We often find round tables in coffee shops, not formal square ones. We are not meeting in someone’s office where he or she sits at a desk (a powerposition) and we sit in chairs facing the desk. We are not meeting in board roomswhere, again, certain people assume power positions and chair meetings. We havecome as equals: and we’ve bought our own coffee.Cappuccino U is your university, your learning facility; you are in control of it andyour learning. The campus is your local coffee shop or any other comfortable placewhere you can meet colleagues and mentors, and where you can access the web. It’sa movement, not an institution.
People are moving away from traditional educationalinstitutions for their day-to-day needs of updating, networking and learning. Cappuccino U – remember that this is a metaphor for what you do – offersmentorship, small group learning and seminars, solitary learning , distance education,e-books, the possibility of formal degrees, the opportunity for asynchronous learning. It connects you to vast opportunities for learning and networking.
Read the book; it will only take you about 10 minutes.
Add to list of effective informal learning practices: build more Third Places.
3 comments ↓
There is no doubt that most “book learning” needs to be done from books, or audio material by the learner on his or her own.
Schools and universities merely provide the opportunity for social interaction and issue certificates. If this can be done by “third place” institutions, the power of organized education can be weakened to the advantage of real learners.
We are working towards that end at http://www.thelinguist.com. We are interested in exchanging ideas.
[...] We’ve talked before about the Third Place, a spot that’s neither home nor work. It might be a lunchroom, a bar, at the gym, a retreat. For me, it’s often the SF Museum of Modern Art, a soothing place that inspires visitors. Betsy Burroughs takes clients on the train to Yosemite and back, a full day’s journey with no phone calls and hours to talk. [...]
[...] This brings me back to the Cappuccino U meme that passed through the learning community early this winter; for example, with Harold Jarche here and Jay Cross here. Even though I increasingly interact with all three environments mentioned above at a single physical desk and computer at my home, I’m more productive in all three if I keep them as distinct (but loosely coupled) environments within my computer desktop. I already do this in some fashion using SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop “cube” functionality where I have the various environments in action across three different sides of my desktop cube. [...]
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